Standing Strong on Two Feet

The Highlights from last Sunday Night Middle School Youth Ministry:

We all gathered in the social hall for prayer and praise and worship. Part of our prayer included watching a You tube video called “The Colors of Catholic Social Teaching” which had very poignant images and the music was hauntingly beautiful. It served as a quick review of what they had done the week before at their stations and the colors in the video were the same colors as the beads on their “justice bands” that they made at the gathering before. Please take a moment to watch the video for yourselves or together with your middle schooler:

The kids brainstormed difficulties people have in their lives and possible solutions: hunger- give to a food bank, addiction- be a friend and talk to them about finding help… Their solutions were great examples of Charity, one foot of Catholic Social Teaching. The other foot is Justice. “Charity” includes the things that we can do right now to help people in need. “Justice” includes the actions that change the structures that keep people living in poverty, unemployed, undereducated… During part of the teaching the kids were asked to stand on one foot… One foot is better than none, but two feet work a lot better!!! The same is true about Charity and Justice.

Jeanne Schaller, a member of the Midland Chapter of the Non-Violent Peace Force, spoke to us about what peace is and what the aim of the Non-Violent Peace Force is: Trained, unarmed civilians helping people to resolve conflict in some of the most war torn areas of the world. We are collecting change to be put in our Peace Pole bank as part of our “Some Change for Peace” coin collection.

In class, the kids played a card game called “The Stacked Deck” game. They concluded with a prayer service and picked up their “With ONE Box, ONE Can… Make a Difference” thank you cards to give to the 4 neighbors that they will collect a box or can of non-perishable food from. Including the item from their home that would make 5 items per student. 5 items don’t seem like many but if we all bring in 5 items by November 5 then we will have 750 items to donate to the Emergency Food Pantry.

One of our 7th grade groups cooked for the House of Mercy. It was our first breakfast of the year for the women and children’s shelter. We will be cooking 11 more times over the course of the year and every class will have an opportunity to do the cooking.